First Impressions of the Monsters in Monsters of the Multiverse

 I won't be getting the book until May, when it's available to be purchased on its own, but given that intention, I haven't felt particularly guilty looking at Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse's content online - I try to restrict my use of content to things I've purchased, but this is an odd release schedule.

Anyway, while the changes to playable races have been really interesting to look through (though I remain disappointed that Warforged weren't included even though we got Shifters - no offense to these not-quite lycanthropes) the meat of this book is, of course, its monsters.

I have heard some criticisms that say that even with some changes, the monsters don't clearly earn their challenge rating if you use the Modifying Monsters tables in the DMG (one of the biggest flaws in those tables is that AC only goes up to 19, even to CR 30 - when it's perfectly reasonable to have monsters that go well beyond that AC, and sort of have to if you want high CRs).

Still, I haven't gone through and calculated everything by those standards or anything. I'm looking primarily anecdotally.

The most interesting changes are to any monster/NPC that relied primarily on spellcasting for its difficulty. Having a creature that can cast, say, Finger of Death, but only once a day, sometimes leaves you grasping for what you actually want them to do with their turn. While this is a built-in challenge for players, DMs have a ton on their plates. Notably not every spellcasting NPC has had all of their damage spells turned into singular abilities, but each of them will have a solid "I attack the party" set of actions that I think will probably make for a reasonable thing to do on their turns.

This is particularly common among humanoid NPC stat blocks, which tend to play more like player characters. For example:

The Warlock of the Great Old One has two non-spell actions. Its Dagger attack now does 3d6 psychic damage on top of the usual weapon damage, and they get to make two attacks with the dagger (I'd definitely give them either a whole bunch of daggers to throw or a magic dagger that returns to their hand). They also have Howling Void, which creates a 20-ft cube in which creatures need to make a Wisdom saving throw against some modest psychic damage (2d8) and becoming frightened for a round, taking half damage on a success. The dagger will obviously do more damage to any single target, but the Warlock could use this AoE option if they could catch a few party members in it (or if they need the fear effect). The Warlock also retains its Whispering Aura, which causes anyone in melee range at the start of the Warlock's turn to have to make a Wisdom save or take 3d6 psychic.

Looking back to the version in Volo's:

This version's dagger is just a normal dagger, doing pretty pitiful damage (and with a slightly lower bonus to hit) and instead gives the warlock a couple of innate spells (presumably to represent eldritch invocations) plus cantrips (it's a 14th level spellcaster, so tier 3 versions) which include Chill Touch, Eldritch Blast, and Shocking Grasp, and then 3 5th level spell slots to cast a bunch of different-leveled spells some of which do damage and some of which are pure utility.

So, it's very clear that the new version is way easier to use - you might choose to cast one of the utility spells like Arcane Gate, but most of the time if this is just XP fodder, you pretty much just need to choose between their dagger and Howling Void. Indeed, the utility spells might be more likely to come up if you have a friendly one helping out the party.

Several months ago, I ran a level 18 one-shot in which the party faced down Orcus - this legendary demon lord seemed like he'd be really cool. The thing is, Orcus' stat block as shown in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (and Out of the Abyss) is actually built much more around the undead monsters he can summon, rather than his own personal damage output.

I think probably what you're meant to do is use charges on his Wand of Orcus to cast Circle of Death and Finger of Death, and perhaps use Blight as his default action. But the new version creates what I think are simpler ideas that also benefit from better action economy. For one thing, he can now make three, instead of two Wand of Orcus melee attacks, but if the targets aren't in range, he also has a new Necrotic Bolt spell attack that deals 29 damage on a hit - and he can do it three times.

Again, I think there's probably some wonky math to do here, but as far as I can tell, Orcus loses none of his previous capabilities, but gains new offensive options. Yes, his real threat should be the fact that he can summon an army of the dead as an action, but you also want him to present a significant threat on his own.

Really, I don't think I'll be able to do a real review of this until I've played with some of these stat blocks in the game I run. I like the underlying philosophy, though.